Political Science

Examination Syllabus - Political Science

Section-A

1. Political Science : Nature & scope of the discipline, relationship with allied disciplines like History, Economics, Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology.

2. Meaning of Politics : Approaches to the study of Politics.

3. Key Concepts : State, Soceity, Sovereignty, Power, Citizenship, Nation, Global order and Imperialism.

4. Political Ideas : Rights, Liberty, Equality, Justice, Rule of Law. Civil Soceity Swaraj, Revolution, Democratic Participation.

5. Democracy : Meaning and Theories of Democracy, Electoral system, Forms of Representation & Participation, Political accountability.

6. Political Ideologies : Liberalism, Neoliberalism, Marxism, Socialism, Fascism, Gandhism.

7. Party System and Political Process : Therories of Party System, National and regional parties, Political Parties in the Third World. Patterns of coalition politics, interest and pressure groups.

8. Forms of Government : Parliamentary and Presidential. Federal & unitary Modes of decentralisation.

9. Bureaucracy Concept : Theories, Weber and critiques of Bureaucracy.

10. Theories of Development : Meaning and various approaches. Concept and Theories of underdevelopment Debates in the Third World.

11. Social Movements : Meaning, Theories & Forms, Role of Environmental Feminist Peasant & workers movements, Role of Non Government organisation.

12. Nationalism and Internationalism

13. Major theories of International relations : Realist Marxist, Systems & Decision making & Game theory.

14. State & the Global order : Neo-Liberalism, globalisation, structural adjustment, regional economic integration, Nature and Impact of globalisation.


Section-B (Indian Government and politics)

1. Approaches to the study of Governments : Comparative historical, legal institutional, political economy and political sociology, approaches.

2. Classification of Political systems : Democratic and Authoritarian, characteristics of Political systems in the third world.

3. Typologies of constitutions : Basic features of these constitutions & governments, including U.K., USA. France, Germany, China, and South Africa.

4. Constitutional development : in India during British Rule-A historical perspective.

5. Constituent Assembly : philosophical and socio-economic dimensions. Salient features of the Indian Constitution.

6. Nature of Indian federalism : Centre-state relations, legislative, administrative, financial and political; politics of regional move and National Integration.

7. Fundamental Rights : Constitutional provisions and political dynamics. Judicial Interpretations and socio political realities; Fundamental Duties.

8. The Union Executive : President, Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, Constitutional provisions & framework and political trends.

9. Parliament : Powers and functions of the Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha; Parliamentary Committees; Functioning of the Parliamentary system in India.

10. The Judiciary : The Supreme Court , Judicial Review Judicial Activism, Public Intrest Litigation; Judicial Reforms.

11. The State Executive : Governor, Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers; Constitutional Provisions and Political trends.

12. Indian Party System : Evolution and Contemporay trends; coalition government at the Centre and States, pressure groups in Indian politics.

13. The interaction of Government & Scientific & Technology business : Previous and now their inter relationship and changing roles in Society, Elites, Role of Pressure groups class and voluntary associations in society.

14. Local Government & Politics : Panchayti Raj and Municipal Government, structure power & functions. Political realities, significance of 73rd and 74th Amendements, role of women in Panchayats.

15. Bureaucracy and Development : Post-colonial India; its changing role in the context of liberatis after, bureauratic Accountability.

16. Challenges to Indian Democracy :
1. Communalism Regionalism violence, criminalisation and corruption.
2. Regional disparities, environmental degradation, illiteracy, Mass Poverty, Population, growth, caste oppressions and socio economic inequalities among backward classes.




Main Examination Syllabus - Political Science and International Relations

Paper-I

Section-A (Political Theory and Indian Politics)

* Approaches to the study of political theory: historical, normative and empirical.

* Theories of state: Social contract, Liberal, Neo-liberal, Marxist, communitarian, post-colonial.

* State Sovereignty: Marxist and pluralistic theories; globalisation and the State.

* Democracy and Human Rights: Democratic theory-classical and contemporary. Theories of Human Rights; Theories of Justice, Equality and Revolution, political obligation; New Social Movements.

* Theories of Political Culture; Culture and politics in Third World countries.

* Theories of Political Economy-Classical and contemporary.

* Political Ideologies: Nature of Ideology; Liberalism, Socialism, Marxism, Fascism, Gandhism and Anarchism.

* Theories of Power and Hegemony: Pareto, Mosca, Mitchels, C. Wright Mills, Weber, Gramsci, Hannah Arendt.

* Indian Political Thought: Manu, Kautilya M.N. Roy Gandhi Ambedkar and E V Ramswami Naicker.

* Political Thought: Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, J S Mill, Hegel and Marx, Lenin, Rosa Luxemberg and Mao Zedong.

Section-B (Indian Government and Politics)

* Indian Nationalism: Dadabhai Naoroji, Tilak, Savarkar, Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narain, Nehru, Subhas Bose, Ambedkar, Ram Manohar Lohia.

* Nature and struggle of Indian freedom struggle : From constitutionalism to Mass Satyagraha, Revolutionary movements Non Co-operation, Civil disobedience and Quit India, Indian Naval uprising, Indian National Army; role of women in freedom struggle.

* Socio- economic dimensions of the nationalist movement: The communal question and the demand for partition; backward caste movements, Trade union and Peasant movements, Civil rights movement.

* Landmarks in Constitutional Development during British Rule: Morley-Minto Reforms; Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms; Simon Commission; Government of India Act, 1935; Cripps Mission : Indian Independence Act, 1947.

* Salient Features of the Indian Constitution: The Preamble, Fundamental Rights and Duties, Directive Principles; federalism, parliamentary system; amending procedures; judicial review.

* The Executive System in theory and practice: President, Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers; Governor, Chief Minister and the State Council of Ministers. The Bureaucracy.

* Role and function of the Parliament and Parlimentary Committee-Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha; changing socio economic profile.

* The Supreme Court and the High Courts; Judicial Activism; PIL.

* Statutory institutions/commis sions-UPSC, Election Commission, Comptroller and Auditor General, Backward Classes Commission, National Commission for women; National Human Rights Commission; Minorities Commission.

* Party system : ideology and social base of parties; fragmentation and regionalisation. Pressure groups; patterns of coalition politics; trends in electoral behaviour.

* Class, caste, ethnicity and gender in Indian politics; politics of regionalism, communalism, backward class and Dalit movements, Tribal people movements, struggle for gender justice.

* Planning and Economic Development : Role of the Planning Commission; Planning in the era of liberalisation; political dimensions of economic reforms.

* Grassroots democracy : Panchayati Raj and municipal government; significance of 73rd and 74th Amendements. Grass root movement and women's empowerment.


Paper - II (Comparative Politics and International Relations)

Section-A (Comparative Analysis and International Politics)

* Approaches to the study of comparative politics : traditional approaches; political economy, political sociology or political system approaches; Nature of political process in the Third World.

* The Modern State : Evolution, the contemporary trends in the advanced industrial countries and the third world.

* Development : Strategies and contemporary discourse.

* Concepts of International politics : Power, national interest, balance of power, national security, collective security and peace.

* Theories of International politics Marxist, Realist, Systems, Decision-making and Game Theory.

* Determinants of foreign policy : Domestic compulsions, geopolitics, geoeconomics and global order.

* Origin and contemporary relevance of the Cold War, nature of the post-cold war global order.

* Major issues of world politics : Cuban Missile Crisis; Vietnam War, Oil Crisis, Afghan Civil War, Gulf War, Collapse of the Soviet Union, Yugoslav Crisis.

* Non-alignment : Concept and movement; Third World Movements for global justice, Non-alignment in the post cold war era.

* The evolution of the international economic system-from Bretton woods to WTO, the North-South dimension.

* International organisations UN and its specialized agencies : International Court of Justice; ILO, UNICEF, WHO UNESCO.

* Regional, organizations such as the ASEAN, APEC, EU, SAARC, NAFTA

* Contemporary Global Concerns : Democracy, Human Rights, Ecology, Gender Justice, Global commons, Communication.

Section-B (India and the World)

* Indian Foreign Policy : Historical origins, determinants; the institutions of policy-making; continuity and change.

* India and the Non-Alignment Movement : Evolution and contemporary relevance. Socio- political basis of non-alignment-domestic and global.

* Major issues in Indian foreign policy : Sino-Indian Border War (1962); Indo-Pakistan War (1971) and the liberation of Bangladesh; IPKF in Sri Lanka; India as military nuclear power (1998).

* Conflict and co-operation in South Asia : India's relations with Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal. Regional co-operation and SAARC. Kashmir question in India's foreign policy.

* India's relation with Africa and Latin America.

* India and South East Asia; ASEAN.

* India and the major powers : USA, EU, China, Japan and Russia.

* India and the UN System : India's role in UN Peace Keeping and global disarmament.

* India and the emerging international economic order; multilateral agencies-WTO, IMF, IBRD, ADB.

* India and the question of nuclear weapons : NPT and CTBT.